Pages

Monday, August 8, 2011

The Drunken Master: League of Legends, my impression

Good Day!

So I fired up League of Legends on Blood lord Soldados recommendation for a little while this weekend. I was under the impression that it was just a game that you ran in your browser but that is not the case. It was actually a fairly lengthy download and install. I let the updates simmer while I went out to Dinner and when I came back I was ready to rock!

I started the tutorial and about 5 minutes into it, the game crashed. It suggested that I update my video drivers. So another download and install later I was ready to rock!

So I fired up League of Legends... lol... And I finally got to play a bit! I launched the tutorial again and went through a pretty basic run through. All the attacks are auto attacks when you right click on the enemies minions. You do have to right click on each one which could get hectic in a big melee, but the general they give you to start with is a ranged bow user so you don't get to know that quite yet.

The tutorial runs you through the basic actions in the game. Attacking units, attacking structures, purchasing items, purchasing and upgrading your abilities, and using the newer abilities that you get. It was pretty straight forward and reminiscent of Starcraft. (I was told this is based on some kind of Hero battle mod for warcraft but I never played that)

Cursing and my in game experience after the jump!

So with the tutorial finished I was all ready to jump in and play a real game! Or so I thought... I signed up for a match and was presented with a bunch of unfamiliar heroes. I picked one that looked cool and was pretty happy with my choice. Some little mummy guy creatively named Amummu. A few loading screens later and I was playing League of Legends! But not really... The tutorial didn't really prepare me for playing with other people. I moved up to go fight the enemy and one of the other players started internet yelling at me. I guess I was going the wrong way for him so he told me
"FUCKING DUMABSS GO THE OTHER WAY"
"YOUR IN MY LANE"
"AHHH YOUR SUCHJ A PIECE OF SHIT"
"YOU DUMB FUCK AMMAMMU, STOP DYING!"
etc...

So, yeah... lol! I played in game for a little bit and got a couple levels. I upgraded a little bit and killed a couple opponents. But apparently I wasn't following this guys game plan well enough so I was indeed a dumb shit. I was having a little bit of fun but I've played enough WoW to know a shit-head when I see one.
Also, I would just like to say that the tutorial doesn't prepare you for the actual game at all. Maybe I missed the beginners section of matches you could join, but there was a hell of a transition between playing with one hero where they tell you how to do stuff and going into a game where you don't know what any of the heroes do and have 0 experience playing on a team against actual people.

I've been known to be fairly competent at games and the experience with this game has completely turned me off. I know one man does not a playerbase make, but my friend was telling me that's a fairly common experience. No one learns how to play a game for fun by being called a dumb shit. You may call me butt hurt, but I have an infinite number of things that are a better use of my time then playing a game where not only is the game not helpful, but the players are dickheads as well. I may give it another shot, but probably not until I finish painting my Blood Angels, beating all the DLC to New vegas, going camping for a week, and any other excuses I can come up with to not play this game :)

There is a second tutorial that is actually on the real map and with more then just 1 champion (the rest of your team are bots). While it still won't prepare you for douchebaggery, it does teach you what is generally expected in the real game, including stuff like what a lane is. You had a perfect storm of bad situations though, honestly. You picked a difficult character to use, it was your first game, and you had an asshole on your team.That shit does happen, on Sunday I had a team full of chinese people report me for not being good enough. Like I gave a fuck, but still, its pretty ridiculous.

I don't know if learning curves come much steeper than LoL, but I know that after I humped through it, the wait was worth it. The thrill of a good gank, the taste of the 25% bonus gold for first blood... That being said, there is player v bot mode, which is as close as it gets to "beginner's league". Playing through a few rounds of that with the weekly free champs will earn you a cheap champ of your very own. Annie was one of my first buys, and Ashe is great at all levels.

As people have said, doing Co-Op vs AI when you first start out is the way to go. Back in my day, it it was normal ladder or nothing, but this new AI mode is great for beginners. You basically have 4 real teammates against 5 bots. So the outcome doesn't really matter that much, and you can get used to laning and stuff.

I am really enjoying reading your well written articles. It looks like you spend a lot of effort and time on your blog. I have bookmarked it and I am looking forward to reading new articles. lol boosting